Main menu

Diplomatic Passport Of East Germanys Minister Of State Security (STASI)

Diplomatic Passport Of East Germany’s Minister Of State Security (STASI)

This is the East German Diplomatic Passport of Erich Mielke (December 28, 1907 – May 21, 2000) a German Communist politician and Minister of State Security of the German Democratic Republic from 1957 to 1989. A hard-line Stalinist, he spent several years in the Soviet Union. Mielke held the military rank of four star Army General. In 1993, he was convicted of the murders of police officers Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck in 1931.

The passport together with other items from Mielkes property including his wife’s passport was sold by a collector in summer 2004. The final result is unknown. However the passports of East Germany are a very interesting, especially the early years which are nowadays hard to find. Luckily I do have a quite comprehensive collection of East German documents including another diplomatic passport of another important party figure – Gunther Mittag.

Erich Mielke, the former head of the dreaded East German security agency known as the Stasi, has died at 92, German officials said yesterday. The daily Kurier said Mr. Mielke had died May 21 in a home for the elderly in his native Berlin.

From 1957 until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the Stasi wielded enormous power, making Mr. Mielke the most influential person in East Germany after the Communist Party leader, Erich Honecker.

Born into poverty in pre-World War I Berlin, Mr. Mielke joined the Communist youth movement at age 15, and his career epitomized the grimness of Communist rule in East Germany, where assassination, kidnapping, execution, denunciation and intimidation were used to achieve and maintain power under the long, menacing shadow of the Soviet Union.

Mr. Mielke and the ministry for state security kept the 16.5 million people of East Germany obedient to Communism and repressed dissent for more than 30 years. Not only did the ministry pursue an effective campaign against those it regarded as enemies of the state, but its army of 90,000 agents and 260,000 informers finally turned East Germany into a country that spied on itself.

Pages

Archives

Passport Fees Around The World 2018

3 January, 2019

Passport Fees Around The World 2018 Here are the passport fees around the world originally based on a older British Passport Office list. The old (2010) original PDF-file can be downloaded here. Updated data are as following, coming from readers…

Hugh Hefner several passports at US auction

21 December, 2018

Hugh Hefner several passports at US auction Hugh Marston Hefner (April 9, 1926 – September 27, 2017) was an American magazine publisher and life-stylist. He was founder and editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine, a revolutionary publication, aimed at a sophisticated young readership, with revealing…

Market Flash – Historical Passports For Collectors

23 September, 2018

Market Flash – Historical Passports For Collectors For a passport collector it’s crucial to watch the market for documents and I do so since decades. First of all you want to know what documents are available, then how frequently are…